THE Queen is an impressive person. The institution of the monarchy may be deplorable in certain respects, but the Queen herself has Herculean self-control, a deep sense of duty and vast experience to draw upon, in acute contrast to many world leaders whose visits she must suffer. Her Christmas address was a touching appeal for unity.

But was she including climate change when she said it is “the small steps, not the giant leaps” that bring about the most lasting change in the world? As always with the Queen, it was hard to be sure.

Did she mean recycling one’s Christmas wrapping paper and turning the Palace thermostat down a degree? If so, it’s a lovely sentiment, that small steps can solve climate change, but – tragically, painfully – it’s not true.

Giant leaps are now what we need – transformative change, locally, nationally and globally – if we are to have a hope of reining in accelerated climate change.

Those recent pictures of tearful people standing knee-high in brown water in their kitchens are at the cheery end of the climate impact scale. This century has seen 18 of the 19 hottest years on record.

If swift action is not taken to stop the average global temperature rising above 1.5 degrees (it is already 1.1 degrees above pre-industrial levels), then even more severe consequences will follow: regular severe heatwaves affecting billions, large-scale species loss, food and water shortages, coastal cities being lost to the waves and millions displaced – a petri dish for political extremism and war.

"Never have I seen such a disconnect between what the science requires and what the climate negotiations are delivering,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists 10 days ago, after the latest global climate change talks once again ended in failure.

Donald Trump on Monday made a rambling attack on wind turbines that was so incoherent he sounded like an android critically low on battery power, but it’s not even funny any more. Faced with such titanic stupidity and cynicism, climate campaigners like Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion feel as if they are screaming into the wind.

It is still possible to halt this unfolding global trauma and Britain could play a vital leading role now the US has abdicated responsibility, but only if this inadequate government is forced to take it a lot more seriously.

Opposition parties, working together and galvanising public opinion, could not only force the agenda, but find their own salvation in the process.

The Tories have climate change deniers prominently within their ranks. As recently as 2015, our ideologically rudderless Prime Minister was writing columns sneering at climate science. One of Mr Johnson’s first acts since winning the election has been to appoint a climate change sceptic, Monmouth MP David Davies, as a Wales Office minister and whip. The Tories are the party of choice for the fossil fuel lobby and climate sceptics. Businessman Terence Mordaunt, for instance, chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (the UK’s leading group for climate sceptics), is a major Tory and Leave campaign donor.

So that is Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. They talk about becoming net zero by 2050 (well behind the other parties), but the evidence suggests they cannot be trusted. In their recent manifesto, the Tories voiced enthusiastic support for the oil and gas industry, anticipating it has a “long future ahead”, talking vaguely of it playing “a key role as we move towards a net zero economy” without explaining how.

The Tories trumpet their intention to spend £30bn on new roads, have no plan for rolling out low carbon heating as alternatives to gas, and offer wholly inadequate plans on home insulation to drive down energy use.

So how to push this short-termist government and its self-serving leader to take the steps required?

This will be the historic mission of the opposition parties over the next critical five years.

Nothing is of greater political urgency. Brexit and even Scottish independence – yes, even that – will seem like self-indulgent distractions to the historians of tomorrow if there is a failure to use this period to shunt progress forward on climate change.

What the opposition can do is harness public opinion, particularly among the young, to force the government to be more radical.

And they can look to the campaign for a second Scottish independence referendum to see how it could be done.

Scottish public opinion is still finely balanced, but the yes campaign’s relentless demands for a second vote have started to break down opposition, including among some Labour MSPs.

The campaign has not undermined UK Government resistance – yet – but if public opinion continues to flow in the same direction, it will cause acute problems for the Prime Minister.

That is what needs to happen now with climate change. Opposition parties worked together campaigning for a second Brexit referendum. That ultimately faltered because of antipathy to Jeremy Corbyn, but he will not be Labour leader for much longer. Labour, the SNP, Liberal Democrats, Green Party and Plaid Cymru, speaking with one voice – and articulating the deep anxiety of the young – could have a profound impact.

The next global climate change talks will take place in Glasgow in December 2020. Boris Johnson has said he doesn’t want Nicola Sturgeon “anywhere near” the talks, but she has a greater claim to global leadership on it than he does. If Britain is to make a diplomatic impact at those talks, the UK Government must greatly up its game so it can set an example to others.

Britain needs to: bring international aviation and shipping into carbon budgets; stop funding fossil fuel extraction abroad; commit to phasing out the use of fossil fuels; spend much more on expanding renewables, including onshore wind; bring forward the transition to electric vehicles; spend vastly more on cycling, walking and public transport; and introduce a frequent flyer tax, among other things.

The only way this populist Prime Minister will do those things is if he feels he is losing public support.

A powerful climate change campaign could make that happen.

Let’s remember that more people voted for opposition parties than for the government on December 12, including most under 50s.

Small steps matter, but alone they will not solve this crisis. Our hopes now depend on giant leaps.